Ocean Vuong
| birth_place = Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam | residence = Northampton, Massachusetts, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | resting_place = | occupation = Writer, poet, professor | language = English | nationality = American | ethnicity = | citizenship = American | education = | alma_mater = Brooklyn College, City University of New York | period = | genre = poetry, essays, novel | subject = | movement = | notableworks = | spouse = | partner = | children = | relatives = | awards = Ruth Lilly/Sargent Rosenberg fellowship; The Pushcart Prize; T.S. Eliot Prize; MacArthur Fellowship | signature = | signature_alt = | module = | website = | portaldisp = }} Ocean Vuong (born October 14, 1988) is a Vietnamese-American poet, essayist, and novelist. Life Youth and education Vuong was born Vương Quốc Vinh on a rice farm near Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam. His grandmother was a young woman who grew up on the country side while his grandfather was a white American soldier in the Navy originally from Michigan. His grandparents met during the Vietnam War, married and had 3 children, Vuong's mother being one of them. His grandfather had gone back to visit home in the U.S. but was unable to return when the fall of Saigon happened. His grandmother had placed his mother and aunts in orphanage, concerned for their survival, before reuniting with them as adults. They fled Vietnam after a police officer had suspected that his mother was of mixed race heritage and in turn was working illegally under Vietnamese law. A 2-year old Vuong and his family eventually arrived in a refugee camp in the Philippines before achieving asylum and migrating to the United States, settling in Hartford, Connecticut, with 6 relatives. His father abandoned his family after that. Vuong was reunited with his maternal grandfather later in life. Vuong, who suspects dyslexia runs in his family, was the earliest in his family to learn to read, at the age of eleven. Vuong describes himself as being raised by women. His mother, a manicurist, gave him the name of Ocean. During a conversation with a customer, Vuong's mother pronounced the word "beach" as "bitch". The customer suggested she use the word "ocean" to substitute for "beach". After learning the definition of the word ocean — the most massive classified body of water, such as the Pacific Ocean, which connects the United States and Vietnam — she renamed him Ocean. Vuong is openly gay, and is a practicing Zen Buddhist. Vuong earned a B.A. in 19th century English Literature at Brooklyn College, within the City University of New York system, where he studied under poet and novelist Ben Lerner. He received his M.F.A. in poetry from New York University. Career His poems and essays have been published in various journals, including Poetry, The Nation, TriQuarterly, Guernica, The Rumpus, Boston Review, Narrative Magazine, The New Republic, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. His debut chapbook, Burnings (Sibling Rivalry Press), was a 2011 "Over The Rainbow" selection for notable books on nonheterosexuality by the American Library Association. His second chapbook, No (YesYes Books), was released in 2013. His debut full-length collection, Night Sky With Exit Wounds, was released by Copper Canyon Press in 2016; as of April that year, the publisher ran a second printing. His first novel, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, was published by Penguin Books on June 4, 2019. Vuong lives in Northampton, Massachusetts and is an assistant professor in the MFA Program for Writers at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He is a Kundiman fellow. Writing Writing in The New Yorker, Jia Tolentino sees the "structural hallmarks of Vuong's poetry—his skill with elision, juxtaposition, and sequencing" in his debut novel. Recognition Vuong was awarded the 2014 Ruth Lilly/Sargent Rosenberg fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, a 2016 Whiting Award, and the 2017 T.S. Eliot Prize for his poetry. His debut novel, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, was published in 2019. He received a MacArthur Grant the same year. Awards and fellowships *Ruth Lilly/Sargent Rosenberg fellowship, 2014 *The Pushcart Prize, 2014 *The Elizabeth George Foundation Fellowship, 2013 *Chad Walsh Prize, Beloit Poetry Journal, 2013 *Stanley Kunitz Prize for Younger Poets, 2012 *Academy of American Poets University and College Poetry Prize, 2010 *The Narrative Prize, 2015 *Whiting Award for Poetry, 2016 *Forward Prize for Poetry Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection, 2017 *T. S. Eliot Prize, 2017 *Kundiman Fellow *MacArthur Genius Grant (2019) Publications Collections *''Burnings''. Alexander, AR: Sibling Rivalry Press, 2010. * No (YesYes Books, 2013). OCLC 878505119 *''Night Sky with Exit Wounds''. New York: Copper Canyon Press, 2016; London: Jonathan Cape, 2017. Novels * On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous (Penguin Press, 2019). OCLC 1052450975 Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Ocean Vuong, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Feb. 12, 2020. See also *Asian-American poets *LGBT poets *List of U.S. poets References External links ;Poems 8Ocean Vuong profile & 3 poems at the Academy of American Poets *Ocean Vuong at the Poetry Foundation *Poems online ;Audio / video *Ocean Vuong at YouTube ;Books *Ocean Vuong at Amazon.com ;About *"War Baby: The amazing story of Ocean Vuong, former refugee and prize-winning poet" at The Guardian *Ocean Vuong Official website Category:1988 births Category:Living people Category:21st-century American poets Category:21st-century American essayists Category:American male essayists Category:American male poets Category:American writers of Vietnamese descent Category:Brooklyn College alumni Category:Gay writers Category:LGBT people from New York (state) Category:LGBT poets Category:LGBT writers from the United States Category:The New Yorker people Category:Vietnamese emigrants to the United States Category:21st-century American male writers Category:LGBT people from Vietnam Category:LGBT American people of Asian descent Category:LGBT people from Connecticut Category:Vietnamese-American poets Category:21st-century poets Category:American poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets